Project information

A new sensory and therapy garden for sick children

We are working with Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, to provide play equipment, furniture and plants to create a relaxing and therapeutic sensory garden for the children’s unit. Providing this equipment will benefit 27,000 sick or disabled children and babies each year.

Charity information: MedEquip4Kids

Need

The old play area was damaged in storms last year, and had been in place for over 15 years. It has now been condemned so there is no outside space for young patients who are on the ward or waiting for appointments.

Children who are in hospital for long periods of time really value the opportunity to leave their bedside and go outdoors when friends and family are visiting, or with the play staff.

Solution

The new garden will give patients, families, visitors and medical staff the opportunity to go outdoors to play. The new garden will be accessible for children in wheelchairs and beds, and will include a track for ride-on cars for younger children as well as a quiet area for older teens who are often overlooked within children's services.

The new project will open up the space and give children access to the outdoors and fresh air.

Location

The play area is attached to the ground floor of the Treehouse Children's Unit, a dedicated facility for children at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester. The unit treats children from across South Manchester and parts of Derbyshire and Cheshire.

Postcode: SK2 7JE

Beneficiaries

The hospital treat 27,000 children each year as in-patients and outpatients. The age range of beneficiaries will be 0-18, and all beneficiaries will be suffering from some form of ill health, speical needs or disabilities. The patients who will benefit most from the garden will be those with long term health problems.

The area is very mixed with pockets of deprivation in South Manchester, and more affluent areas in Cheshire.